Am 17.10.2010 um 20:28 schrieb kai-martin knaak:
Markus Hitter wrote:http://reprap.org/wiki/PCB_Milling#gerbv "gEDA is yet another software suite with schematic and PCB layout editor. It wasn't included in the set of preferred choices here because it requires hand-coding of text files in between usage of the different GUI tools."Actually, it does not. You can do the whole work-flow in GUI-mode only. You can use xgsch2pcb or the shiny new pull feature of pcb to eliminate the command line, too. That said, sometimes it is just easier to tweak the *.sch, or *.pcb files than use the GUIs. The reprap example shows how slightly misunderstood concepts may scare away potential new users/projects.
As I wrote most of this RepRap Wiki page myself, I can also explain how this happened.
When looking on how and wether to get away from the free but closed source Eagle I tried a small 8 elements electronics project on Eagle, KiCad, Fritzing and gEDA. All from creating schematics to the finished GCode needed for milling the PCB. RepRap is about machines replicating it's self, so getting boards from some industry company should be avoided as much as possible.
Regarding gEDA, your home page recommends the gsch2pcb tutorial http://geda.seul.org/wiki/geda:gsch2pcb_tutorialfor new users, so I started with that. If you look at this tutorial, it's full of command line stuff. Edit preferences files here, enter paths there, it even talks about manually fixing errors which occur ineviteably. Uh.
I did the first steps successfully but when I messed up in either gschem or pcb the third time just because they use different mouse buttons for panning and zooming, I also started to wonder how I would explain all this stuff to these 16 year old schoolboys showing up at RepRap. I couldn't imagine that.
Now it's a few weeks later and I use gEDA anyways, because I deviate from a part of the project done by an gEDA expert. I got accustomed somewhat to the inconsistent interfaces, found some spots of excellent GUI - DRC results or the layer setup editor, for example - and the suite starts to show it's bright side. Still it's difficult to explain this software to others.
In case I'm allowed to write down my three biggest wishes, here they are:
- Get that thing packaged as soon as a new release is done. Only software developers install from source these days. As far as I can see, Debian and the just released Ubuntu 10.10 still distribute the Nov 2009 release.
- Get the interface, especially mouse button behaviour, consistent between all parts of the suite. At least for a default installation. It doesn't matter wether you have to use the middle or right mouse button to pan around, but having different buttons for applications you often switch in between is a non-starter. And no, pointing to the key bindings editor doesn't help, because people would have to learn that instead of learning how to get their project done.
- Write a new tutorial. With a few pictures like before, and without any asking for editing text files. I've learned about xgsch2pcb and pull just with the email cited above, after reading many hours in various parts of the gEDA documentation. There is simply no hint such great features exist, so many users never find them.
Yes, this type of public relations work is sometimes tedious, but it will undoubtly bring you a lot of new users as well. As far as I can tell gEDA is the most reliable and powerful choice of open source EDA. The text file format makes it attractive for experts. gEDA's GUI can be brought on par with Eagle or KiCad easily, so there's no reason to miss that opportunity.
Thanks for listening, Markus _______________________________________________ geda-user mailing list geda-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user